The moth and the spider
by scaryprincess
Summary: Jack was a frost fairy and a helper of the snow queen they needed to remain hidden from humans – but the shadow filled forest was forbidden to all of the Snow Queens fairies. Jack, unable to help himself wonders a little too far into the forest and is snatched by none other than the King of Spiders, Pitch Black. Can he escape this spiders web? will he want to escape in the end?
1. Chapter 1

Prologue – The first day of winter

The first thing Jack saw was darkness, with each lazy blink did he realise it wasn't complete darkness – the glow of the moon shone though his cacoon, as if it was saying 'Time to get up, little one'

Jack tiredly kicked around, the crackle of frost was heard as he did – his motley, white and brown moth wings were curled and against his back; it felt wet and sticky.

Jack tugged and pulled at the spun bed of silk, tearing at it with teeth as well – desperately trying to get out, to see the moon again, and to see his queen again and most of all bring snow again.

The bits of cacoon that tore away were quickly eaten by the frost sprite – replenishing whatever magic store the small creature had used to spin the cacoon, though no bigger than a large moth himself.

He clawed and chewed his way out for a good five minutes till he was hanging from the remaining part of the cacoon, waiting for his wings to uncurl and dry.

Jack sighed in delight when the cold air caressed his wings as he held onto the bare branch, his hands had blackened, frostbitten looking fingers with deadly claws to climb trees and even defend himself if needed.

All around him was hundreds of cacoons writhing, little frosted hands and even legs with frostbitten toes wiggling in the winter breeze began popping out as the chattering grew louder and louder around him.

He made a clicking noise, and the other fairy that popped his head out and clicked back at him in greeting. The other fairy was smaller than Jack - the size of a those moth that flutter around lights, with white wings and spots on his wings not showing yet. His name was Jamie. The small winter sprite looked up to Jack and Jack was fond of the little one as well.

Fledging sprites were common prey of toads, birds and all manner of beasts – the snow queen couldn't keep track of all of the young ones so it was left to the older sprites to protect them.

Jamie clawed out mimicking Jack, trying to dry his wings too – an even smaller frost fairy poked her head out of her brother's cacoon; Sophie was the youngest of the group and still not ready to fly yet – Just a grub, Jamie said once with a smile.

'Good morning my little darlings…' The melody voice of the chilled wind rustled around the fairies – a dance of snowflakes in the wind twirled till it formed a beautiful pale woman, wearing a long white gown that seemed to be made from her own white hair, a ringlet of holy berries and thorns made her crown. She wore no shoes on her feet and left no tracks in the snow as she walked – as though she were as light as air.

Jack grinned excitedly at her presence, the moon glowing behind the queen making it as though she were the one glowing; the chattering of the other fairies grew louder in greeting to their Queen of snow and frost.

'It is time to send the flowers and the trees to sleep, my little snowflakes.' She cooed gently.

'Can I come this time?' Jamie called, standing up unsteadily on his branch – the Snow Queen turned her eyes to the young fairy. Only the size of her pinkie if the child stood.

'I don't see why not, have you been practicing flying and frosting with Jack?' She asked. Jack flapped his wings to dry them quicker.

'He's a natural.' Jack said, Jamie beamed at his mentor.

'I want to go!' Sophie whined.

'Give it a few more winters Sophie, you're still a grub' Jamie said

'I'm not a grub!' Sophie screamed going a little blue in the face.

'You'll be a yummy grub for a bird or toad to snatch.' Cupcake, a fairy two winters older than Jamie yawned rising from her cacoon.

'Nah it'll be the spiders that get her.' Caleb said cheerfully. He was trying to fling himself off the branch onto another as his wings were still wet. Sophie was going quite pale, and sinking back into her cacoon.

'I don't want to go anymore…' Sophie whimpered.

'Can we not talk about spiders?' Pippa shuddered, flapping her small wings.

'Creepy…' Claude echoed, trying to pull his leg free from his cacoon only ending up hanging upside down.

'I agree with Pippa, spiders are not…' The snow queen shuddered a little, 'a pleasant topic to talk of on the first day of winter, my dears.'

'Aw yeah, bring on the snow!' Jamie pumped his fist.

'And don't forget the snowballs' Jack said, launching himself into the air with a few pumps of his wings – the wind catching him by surprise and launching the fairy in the air with a delighted whoop.

The snow queen caught her laughing, small fairy with gentle cupped hands, placing him on her shoulder. She looked at the fairies, the ones old enough to fly and the ones not with the duty of holding the fort.

'We have a full day of winter ahead of us; let's blanket the world in white!'

The fairies cheered, the snow queen turning into a twirling mass of snowflakes with the fairies in tow – flying with the glow of the moon.

* * *

TBC?

If people are interested of course. Please read and review. Need to edit and such.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N in case anyone gets confused - Pitch and the Nightmare King is not the same person.

* * *

While the frost fairies and their queen bought the harsh but beautiful winter to the lands, there was a dark forest below the swarms of insects and even a few bats screeching just above the tree tops.

It was a forest of writhing, twisted shadows – summer, spring, autumn and winter never left its mark on the trees; skeletal in appearance with outstretched hands, it was a home of owls, bats and lowly insects.

Glinting golden eyes of a black widow spider stared up to the sky from his perch on his tree as the winter sprites passed gracefully in the north wind with their queen, as they flew above snowflakes floated down.

The spider raised up one of his many legs as the snowflake gracefully danced ever closer.

The spider had never seen anything as perfect and beautiful – not even the stray butterfly that managed to get caught in his web, the absolute hopelessness the creature exuded as the black widow approached. It was the food chain and how the world worked; the black widow had felt saddened by the loss of those blinking, flashing wings in the moonlight however and so he ripped off the wings off the hollow husk of his meal and strung it on his tree with some of his sticky silk.

He loved how the wings fluttered in the wailing wind, the colours now dulled but they were still colour in this monotone forest.

Unlike the foolish butterfly, the snowflakes didn't leave a trace – whether they melted quickly or this forest was cursed to turn beautiful things into forgotten husks, devouring all that entered, leaving no trace; like the forest was a gigantic spider.

The black widow believed strongly in the latter, but he also believed that this forest was changed and twisted by the monster that lives in its catacombs; created by a large burrowing beast and by the roots of the decaying trees.

The king that ruled over even the Spider king detested all beauty and could not allow it to exist in his domain. The black widows king was given the title of the Nightmare King, and he gave the title of Spider King as a joke – the black widow closed his many eyes in distress – the black widow was a former fairy that had failed to stop the fearlings from infecting this forest and so the dark ruler rewarded such failure with a curse that caused the extra limbs and eyes, and his mate and young daughter…were eaten by the Nightmare King himself.

At least they were not eaten by the new subjects of the unwilling Spider king, it was a rare "kindness" his now superior shown. It was a kindness that the Nightmare King expected Kozmotis Pitchiner; former Luna fairy, now Spider King to repay with loyalty to the shadow crown.

And so the Luna fairy became a puppet to the Nightmare king, no longer was he Kozmotis Pitchiner but now Pitch Black. The right hand to the Nightmare King himself.

The black widow spider did the most peculiar thing then, he stood up – his black legs which were tipped with claws standing quite steadily and with a quiver did the second pair of legs from his standing ones seemed to disappear; like the outer skeleton was made from shiny black sand blowing in the wind.

His spider body had all but melted away in this strange transformation – leaving a grey skinned fairy; wings bent and dull from little use but in their prime they would have been very fine damsel fly wings. They were also Luna fairy wings.

His outer skeleton became midnight black plated armour, the red hourglass that the black widow was infamous for was such a striking contrast against the black – like freshly spilt blood on the blackest of shale. Though the ability of changing into a spider had some side affects – his teeth were quite sharp, carnivorous and sometimes cannibalistic carvings stuck him and while he had normal pair of arms, there was another pair of arms just below them. All of his fingers were tipped with deadly blackened claws.

Pitch sighed and with a grim expression did he walk back to the hollow tree – the spiders nest was buzzing with activity.

He walked though the webs and insect husks that littered the ground – the hollow of the tree seemed to be moving and writhing; full of blinking red eyes that tracked his every move. The whispering, hollow, dead rustling voices no longer bothered the tarnished Luna fairy anymore.

_Fresh meat…_

_The seasons have changed…_

_I want to eat…_

_Hungry_

_Hungry_

_HUNGRY!_

It's what echoed in the hollow, lit dimly by some sort of glowing moss or mushrooms as glow-worms were constantly eaten and Pitch was sick of replacing them – trading silk with the bat riders for them was troublesome.

The eight legged creatures, all different kinds of spiders – even small flower spiders with yellow on their backs; Pitch picked up one before it was trampled on by a wolf spider in its rush to greet their king. The little flower spider was nipping Pitch's long grey fingers in thanks.

'Time and time again, I tell you not to rush – we've already lost 10 flower spiders and some of your own young.' He said, grim lining his face.

_We don't care_

_Hungry_

_Soon you won't care…_

The voices hissed all at once, ranging from pitches and emotions – the last line made him let go of the flower spider, a small little girl's voice uttered it and it was from the flower spider.

The flower spider scuttled off once it was dropped, Pitch stared at all the red glinting eyes, his own golden eyes were becoming blacker by each passing day – soon to be as dull as lead. He walked towards a nest of sticks arranged to be like a throne held together by spider silk – his main pair of arms were folded across his chest and the other pair was clasped behind his back; both tensed.

Pitch sat down, and his subjects stared at him expectantly with their many eyes.

And Pitch felt suffocated.

* * *

Jack landed on a pond, not sinking but floating – soon followed by the other smaller fairies.

'Ah man, this is huge' Cupcake grumbled at the pond – most of the young ones had never tried to frost over a large expanse of water before.

'Don't underestimate your powers.' The snow queen called encouragingly, the trees seemed to shiver as they shook off leaves in her presence.

'Easy.' Jack grinned at Jamie, 'Just follow what I do.'

'You know you've only had 3 winters doing this Jack.' Jamie huffed a little.

'We need to hibernate in between for our powers to replenish – but even tonight should be enough to teach you the basics.' Jack encouraged gently.

The snow queen flicked her eyes towards Jack as she trailed frost down trees; he was the oldest fairy she had. She seemed to have a lingering look of guilt when she saw him; even the tooth fairy hadn't let her own older helper leave. Perhaps they both were greedy with things they consider theirs…like the tooth fairy, the snow queen disliked the thought of sharing her season with even her own.

Truth was, Jack didn't need to hibernate like the others anymore – he could become a full fledged spirit of winter like her. But she was greedy, so very greedy.

The snow queen watched the small fairies, looking above seeing the flicker of golden dream sand dance above – she smiled gently only to freeze seeing a figure of a man in the forest just across the river, the happy laughing was drowned out by her quickened heartbeat. The figure seemed strange in a way…couldn't put her finger on it.

She tilted her head, and so did the man but as soon as she blinked it was gone.

'Are you okay?' Cupcake asked gently, placing a chilled hand on the snow queen's cheek – the others were busy trying to skate on the water to freeze it. Jamie was flat on his face at the moment.

Pippa quickly joined in cooing at the queen. The queen smiled, the apparition and the threat were heavy in mind.

'I'm fine.' In an afterthought she added, 'Stay away from the forest.'

'But it's so bare.' Jack wined at how horrendous the dead forest looked.

'It's a cursed place, no season can touch it.' She added, trying to stare into the darkness – to see whatever is lurking.

It was something familiar…

'_What goes better than cold and dark?'  
_

The snow queen glared at the darkness, for the Nightmare King was watching them.

* * *

TBC

yep, snow queen has a past with the nightmare king. And pitch is hating his life :)


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